Lords vote to screw the disabled by 213 - 229

The battle is lost, but the war just began.  It is a war that disabled people cannot lose, so by giving the poor, the helpless and the disenfranchised a kicking tonight, the coalition have simply declared their willingness to take the fight to the next level.

BRING IT ON!

I can think of a lot of legal ways to take this to the next level, can you?

My response to an article in Herald Scotland

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/spartacus-report-reveals-criticism-of-benefit-reform.16412349

In case it doesn't get published, it's all true ...

"We have been working closely with disabled people and disability organisations on the introduction of Personal Independence Payment and have listened to their views."
Yes, they listened to peoples views, then ignored them, lied about them and covered them up. 
99%, 98%, 92%, all against the PIP and they STILL forge ahead with it regardless.  They bring Parliament into disrepute by subverting the will of the House of Lords, and then threaten to use an 18th century by-law to again subvert the will of the Lords and the will of the people.  This isn't a democracy, its an autocracy.  A form of Govt. where they pretend to listen, and it goes in one ear and straight out of the other.  That isn't listening, it's deception.  No different to attending an ATOS medical, where no matter what you suffer from and no matter what you state during the medical, it is ignored and they state whatever they need to find you fit for work.
It's more than a disgrace, it is criminal and illegal.

 I'll keep on at them until hell freezes over, this autocracy will not stand

The system is only part of the problem

I took part in the #fab12 thread on Twitter today.  I saw it tagged somewhere and curiosity got the better of me, so I took a look.  I wish I had not bothered in hindsight.

But it did wake me up to a big problem in UK2012 p.l.c., that SOCIETY is just as culpable for society's ills as the coalition and the system.  The people, or a sizeable percentage of them, are seemingly just out for what they can get and don't give a monkeys about the plight of anyone else.  It is very sad that our country has become so lemming-like that they will freely jump off of the cliff because they are told it is the shrewd thing to do, rather than suggest an alternative course of action where every life is a life worth being a part of - and removes the need for the finality of flinging yourself from Beachy Head.  An alternative that doesn't end up with THEM too floating lifeless on the waves with the rest of those they were happy to abandon. 

No system can be adopted without public support, or even innocent public apathy.  It seems like the percentage of the public who are lucky enough to be employed right now, or have a nest egg to fall back on, are quite content to throw the poor out with the bath water to ensure their own well being.  I wonder what their sentiment will be when they are rudely awakened to the realization that they are also being scapegoated by the system they have sold out to?  Will they be shocked into protesting when the realization dawns on them that the Euro has just crashed and that they are to be just as penniless and unemployed as the people that were forsaken by them?

I have no doubt that there were some trolls on the #fab12 thread, that goes without saying.  Shit always attracts flies.  But I left feeling like the problem was more substantial than that.  I left feeling like I needed to put my fingers down my throat and induce vomiting.  I know of many, many tweeters who, in my opinion, are not trolls.  They genuinely believe that people should work for a pittance rather than not work at all.  They believe that a staple diet of turnips is better than starving.  Well, i'm allergic to turnips.  Plus they taste like minty crap.  I want better, I deserve better.  I paid my dues for 25 years, now I want what's coming to me now I am unable to work.  I demand it.  If some financial consultant only earns £90,000pa rather than £98,000pa, then let it be.  It doesn't cost £90k to buy a cwt of turnips, and even plentiful accompanying root vegetables to please the palate, so my conscience is clear with those with loadsamoney paying a little bit more.

Now to convince them of that, before they depart for their yuppie Saturday evening in an Old Broad Street wine bar. ...

Govt plumbs new depths of depravity, as Lord Freud stabs democracy in the back

I'm sure sick and disabled people around the country were whooping with joy as the Lords destroyed the Welfare Reform Bill with three consecutive overwhelmingly passed amendments to the bill.  What you may not be aware of is as soon as the Lords went home, Lord Freud attempted to undemocratically derail the amendments with some of his own ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/jan/12/welfare-benefits

Have you honestly ever heard anything like it?  Honestly, what is the point of the Lords, and the democratic process as a whole, if one sleaze-bag POS with govt backing can simply gallop all over it after the debate has finished?  Is 'bringing the chamber into disrepute' really something that will bother Lord Freud too much, when he has the full weight of an unelected coalition behind him to run roughshod over the entire democratic process, and bulldoze through reform that would see sick and disabled people impoverished and destitute?  It frankly flies in the face of common decency, and shows the coalition in the shit brown coloured light they deserve to be enshrouded in.  There is nothing democratic about Britain in 2012, the people need to be standing up to be counted.  That's ALL people, not just those people who can only only stand with the aid of a support device.  Otherwise, it will be YOUR rights this democratically unelected coalition come after next.

Cameron takes a complete pasting in the 'other place'

I can't link to the beeb as they have chosen to impose a media blackout on anything related to #spartacusreport and disability rights, it seems, but I can confirm that all three WRB amendments were passed in the Lords tonight.

Now to complain to the BBC at their blackout of coverage on one of the most important nights in history for the well being of sick and disabled people across the entire country ...

edit ... They decided to write about it, they sure took their time, enjoy.  Even now, they are pretending only the first vote happened.  For the record, it was a triple event ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16515414

The falacy of forcing the disabled 'into employment'

I'll start off with a question ... what employment?  Where is all this employment for people who can't work?  Are employers just going to start throwing common sense out of the window and employ disabled people to work when there are CVs for 100% able-bodied, qualified people on their desk?  Lets get real here.

A comment I read, on the comments section of a national rag today ...

My partner has been deemed fit to work and we are currently working towards an appeal, he has a condition that effects his muscles and tendons, so he doesn't have anything strength, so he can pick up an empty cup but not one full of water, things like that. He also cannot carry out any personal takes, feed himself, get out of his chair, he can use a computer for very short amounts of time (he can manage about half an hour a day).
He was deemed fit to work as he can hold an empty plastic beaker and because he can use a phone and a computer for very limited amounts of time. Yes he can do those things, but being realistic who would employ someone to work from home for 30 minutes a day depending on when he happens to have a good day. Then you have to consider that he needs help going to the toilet and being fed, so he couldn't work outside the home unless he had a carer, which we can't afford and an employer wouldn't pay for.

A 100% valid point.  Apart from the fact that this commenter's partner CANNOT work, regardless of what the ATOS disability denial factory, in collaboration with Sgt Major Cpl Lt Iain Duncan-Smith, says, even if in theory an employer did give him employment that employer would hardly be getting value for their buck.  An employer would be out of business in double quick time if he were that lax in his judgement of employing people to work for his company.  Fulfilling an obligation to have 4% disabled (but still capable) people on your workforce is completely and utterly different to employing people who are not fit to carry out their duties and would be a drain on the company.  As well as the employers obligation to then ensure the health and safety of that person at work.  No wonder Cameron is also doing away with worker's rights.  Dangerous workplace?  No problem, caveat emptor.

Lets get ******* real here, please!  Cameron is absolutely bonkers if he thinks an employer is going to employ an unqualified person who cannot do the job, just because that person has fraudulently been declared 'fit for work'.  Harsh but true, it's just the way it is.  But Cameron does know this, he is not a stupid man.  Which begs the question, why would the govt want to fraudulently force down a persons benefit entitlement based on a lie?  M.O.N.E.Y. is why.  Avarice, greed, insanity, to fund HS2, call it what you will.  But disabled people, with no ability to work, are being thrown aimlessly and mindlessly into the work market for no other reason than financial gain.  That is a disgrace, and alone enough to question whether this govt is fit for purpose.  Cameron's tory party are not fit for public office, and need to be prosecuted for human rights abuses.  Some achievement for a mere 18mths in power.

We're all desperate for welfare reform, Mr. Cameron, but hiding the truth is not the way to achieve it

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2084706/David-Camerons-Welfare-Reform-Bill-Hiding-truth-way-achieve-it.html

Plaudits to the Daily Mail for going against the well worn grain.  Read it and weep, Mr Scameron

COMEDIANS SAY ......

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2012/01/comedians-say.html

Worthy of a post all of its own.  Download, and absorb, at http://bit.ly/Aml35N

Support those that are unable to stick up for themselves

200 days left, and every reason for the disabled to boycott the Paralympics

We have a govt that is happy to rip apart any security sick and disabled people have, and at the same time is lauding the upcoming Olympics as a triumph for the UK.  A contradiction in terms if ever I heard one.

Yes, lets forgot about the hundreds of thousands of people who are unable to work because of illness, even terminal illness, and take their money and essential services away from them.  At the same time, lets celebrate the Olympics and the financial benefit it will bring to the govt.  Hmm, pass me the sick bucket please!

Every British paralympic participant should boycott the event in it's entirety, it is a mockery to participate in an event for disabled people to show the disabled at their best, whilst at the same time their country takes away everything they need to live a satisfying life forcing them into penury.  The situation isn't just unsatisfactory, it is downright depraved.

I would suggest that any athlete that puts personal pride and avarice in front of decency and moral courage should hang their head in shame.  I understand that the Olympics is the frontispiece for any athlete, the premier event by which ones success defines their career.  But what is that gold medal really worth, when it comes at the cost of your civic duty to make a stand against oppression and injustice against your fellow sufferers who are not in the position you are?  Its the exact reason why 'we weren't gonna play Sun City' and the reason we boycotted the Zimbabwean cricket team.  Taking a moral stand is what separates the caring minority from the jobsworth majority.  I know which category I am in, I wonder which one Sarah Storey and David Weir are in?

Cameron again shows his hate for the afflicted

I have to say, as much as I despise David Cameron and all that he and his ilk stand for, he sure does make a blogger's life very easy.  Today, we read of the contempt he holds for those with Tourette's Syndrome with his likening of them to Ed Balls.  If it wasn't so damned infantile it would be downright insulting to be compared to a guy who reminds me of someone who collects stamps and dresses in Farah slacks when he isn't acting like a bit of a buffoon in the house, but that is indeed what it is ... infantile.  Certainly not becoming of the third most powerful person in the UK.

It shows the utter disregard he holds for the disadvantaged in society, those he is currently crucifying via leaving them penniless and hungry, after cruelly denying their disability in a humiliating dressing down by a firm that specialises in disability denial after being hired in 2005 for that very purpose.  As if Dave's prejudices are not bad enough, Gideon Osborne is no saint.  Gordon Brown was the unfortunate victim of his ignorance, being described as "faintly autistic".  I'm sure Gordo just took it in his stride, but i'm sure autistic people all around the country felt a little uneasy at being used to ridicule the, then, most hated man in the country.

It is all not very nice is it, and a very sharp precursor to the attitudes of a party with an obvious aversion to disability rights and social justice.  I don't hold out much hope for the less advantaged in our country, they can prepare for a very rough time.  Fight it people, don't swallow Dave's kool-aid like he wants you to.  It's laced with arsenic.

The Daily Fail still churning out classist, bigotted crap

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083394/For-years-YOUVE-paid-2-000-week-rents-But-housing-benefit-gravy-trains-hit-buffers.html#comments

So, what we have here is a rank, centre-right rag that advocates ethnic and class based cleansing of the capital and it's immediate outer boroughs.  If you have children from more than one partner, you qualify for an even harsher write up.  As if it were not bad enough that 'poor people' can no longer afford to live in the capital, the 'Fail' is pushing every class, religious and social stereotype it can think of to give YOU, the tax-payer, the impression that these scrounging, depraved, large benefit claiming families should be shipped out to Ilford as soon as possible.

Have you maybe asked yourself why it costs £8,600pm to rent a house in Acton in the first place?  Maybe you have questioned exactly who it is that is travelling on this proverbial gravy train?  I wonder who will take over the tenency of the house from the Rostants?  Realistically it would have to be a person earning at least £160,000 a year right?  Bankers earn that much, as well as politicians and celebrities.  Normal people don't, they usually earn around £12,000pa.  Enough for a two bedroom rabbit hutch on some estate filled with ASBO collecting smegs wearing Burberry caps and Berghaus RG1 windbreakers.

London really should be left to be inhabited by the upper class.  It deserves better than us normal people.  If it were not actually happening, i'd chuckle heartily at the humour i'd just displayed, but it IS true.  London is being cleansed of the working class and handed to the upper echelon to re-inhabit it in a manner fitting of the capital city.  No more pie and mash shops, rich people will not want to degrade themselves in a greasy spoon.  No, rather it will now be the hive of steak houses, cafe bars, Sugar Huts and Starbucks.  Maybe the odd Pret A Porter scattered around here and there around Whitechapel, Commercial Road and Green Street.

Is that really a Britain YOU want to be a part of?  Devoid of character completely and utterly?  Please select your answer from the following choices ...

A. Yes
B. No
C. Not sure
D. Absolutely, i'm moving into the Rostants place very soon and need a watering hole for some blue sky thinking time

Answers on a postcard to ...

My thoughts on the impending destruction of workers rights

In response to this story on the Evening Standard, I posted a comment which they apparently want to censor.  It is a reasoned response, but there is no sign of it in the comments section ...

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/politics/article-24025585-ill-end-health-and-safety-compensation-culture-says-pm.do

I will post it in full below, as my opinion is just as good, and just as valid, as any blinded Tory voter's pro-Cameron, agenda driven opinion ...

"For a man with no mandate and a manifesto promise of no top down re-organisation, he sure is doing a good job of reorganising, from the top down, every facet of British life imaginable.  Imagine what he would have done had he said he was going to roll the country back to the stone age BEFORE the election?  I cant imagine why the British public are so content to see people's rights destroyed in such a brazen manner?  He has this country brainwashed with his talk of benefit scroungers, 'we all in it together' and big society.  What with employment rights also being reorganised from the top down?  Don't be surprised when you unfairly get your hard earned minimum wage job taken from you for no reason after 11mth 25days, with a broken leg to boot as a result of employer negligence, and not have a leg to stand on. You want your human rights trampled on, you got it.  Enjoy."

I think I pretty much nailed the point.  Truth hurts the right, they don't like hearing it and refuse to act on it.  They just continue on their merry way, shutting down the UK in a distinctly 1981 style.  I wonder if the new-romantics, hairdos, make-up, and all, are headed toward a return to the streets?  God forbid.

It seems that Unite has turned down the govt non-offer on NHS pensions

I call it a non-offer as that is what it was, a non-offer.  Nurses and other NHS workers would have STILL been paying more, for longer, to get less, with no comeback whatsoever.  Plus they were being bullied into agreeing to it in double quick time, before it could be properly thought about.  Whatever way you twist it that is totally and utterly unfair.

For a Govt that lauds 'fairness and due process', they sure don't like practising it themselves.  If Unite had accepted this, it would have been a future green light to hammer home even more heart-breaking cuts for already underpaid and over-worked NHS employees.  You have to fight force with superior force, it is the only language the oppressor understands.  We will not take it.  Strikes may be inconvenient, they may be bad for the economy, but what kind of argument is that when govt is taking hard working people's livelihoods away and leaving them in poverty AFTER working a 48hr week!  If the choice is poverty or protest, what would you choose?  Strikes here we come, I guess.  The economy could do without strikes, but do we need them?  Damn right we do.

Mark Serwatka was adamant on BBC HardTalk, last night, that the issue will roll on and on.  If that is what it takes to ensure fairness for hard working ordinary people, disabled people, unemployed people, young people, single mums and children, all in order to bail out bankers for their colossal and criminal incompetence, then so be it.  When we face declining public services, public transport rip-offs, schools facing closure, hospitals facing closure, libraries facing closure, rising food prices, rising fuel prices and disabled and unemployed people being victimised and bullied out of their sanity, then there really IS no other course of action.  If Dave wants to be stubborn, then lets see how far down this rabbit hole goes.  I don't see him swapping his Bentley for a Ford Focus, I thought we were all in it together Mr Cameron?  Obviously not, that is just spin to push the Big Society.  'BS' is closer to the truth, if he wants an abbriv for the term.  We the people can rest assured that we didn't cause this problem so we don't have nowt to apologise for when it comes to public protest.  Bankers are not paying a price for their exploits, so why should we?

No one should be talking benefit reform until they also talk full employment

The IFS has reported today, according to the Guardian, that:

A couple with two children will be £1,250 a year worse off by 2015 as families “shoulder the burden of austerity”, according to an Institute for Fiscal Studies report.
The figures suggest families with children under five, families with more than two children, and jobless lone parents will bear the biggest financial pain.

So although well over 99% of such couples will have had nothing to do with creating the current situation of financial austerity they are paying most for it. That’s deliberate. That’s Tory policy. It’s a Tory policy of picking on those on benefits and those who don’t fit their stereotypical, and fantastical (as in fantasy) view of the family as if all society’s faults are caused by those out of work, on low pay and who are single parents.

More below ...

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2012/01/04/no-one-should-be-talking-benefit-reform-until-they-also-talk-full-employment/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+org%2FlWWh+%28Tax+Research+UK+2%29

Some more essential anti-tory facts for you to have a look at.  It ain't pretty, the more I read the more I hate David Cameron's agenda to smash the working class for every penny they have.

My first post, and i'll use it to show you what i'm about ...

ATOS HEALTHCARE OR DISABILITY DENIAL FACTORIES - RESEARCH SUMMARY

http://www.consumerdefenceleague.com/Forum/showthread.php?tid=480


I'll give you some time to absorb some of the content of the link and then i'll come back and tell you more about myself and the reasons I have a major problem with Tory doctrine and all that it encompasses ...